TV cooking contest shows

[Ron Burgundy]

I laughed so hard at Josh at the end. He's like "whatever man, I know I'm a great chef" after Rock said he should've picked Jen. I can't remember him cooking anything decent ever, and he's never admitted to doing anything wrong. He almost completely ruined it for Rock.

[Analyst]

[ QUOTE ]
I laughed so hard at Josh at the end. He's like "whatever man, I know I'm a great chef" after Rock said he should've picked Jen. I can't remember him cooking anything decent ever, and he's never admitted to doing anything wrong. He almost completely ruined it for Rock.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, that took some cojones on Josh's part. He couldn't even cook crab cakes without burning them time after time, not just the first batch.

If you want to see something funny, check out the video where Scott (the bald assistant chef) just rips into Josh, "I'm coming for you if you **** him over".

Scott tears a new one

[Blarg]

Yup, Josh was unreal. And he wasn't even cooking the crab cakes, if I recall correctly -- he was just WARMING THEM UP! And he couldn't get any out for 30 minutes, and was literally burning through Rock's supply.

This is the same guy that practically got drop-kicked out of the studio by Ramsay when dismissed for being an unbelievable total f*ck-up. It was pretty surreal -- a repeat of inexplicably horrible work, and right there in the final too. I guess he was Rock's team's version of Julia. I just can't figure the guy out -- passive aggressive desire to doom teammates? Dunno. Freaky.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
I laughed so hard at Josh at the end. He's like "whatever man, I know I'm a great chef" after Rock said he should've picked Jen. I can't remember him cooking anything decent ever, and he's never admitted to doing anything wrong. He almost completely ruined it for Rock.

[/ QUOTE ]

Jen looked so comforted and happy to hear Rock say that. It sounds like Rock thought she was the most talented person there probably including Bonnie. It was kinda cool to see someone get praised that way.

[katyseagull]

I think Josh was cooking the crab cakes until he was finally pulled off the station and put on the warmer. That's how I read it. I sort of felt sorry for him. He's probably a fairly decent cook at home or in a really slow restaurant. Obviously he can't perform well in a fast paced environment.

What about how Bonnie screwed up? How did she not have enough prawns? I don't understand how these things work. Was she supposed to order more for the dinner service or did they have enough but they were being too generous? Also, she ran out of fettuccine which is her signature dish. That's just odd.

[Blarg]

Yeah I couldn't figure that out. She ran out of pasta halfway through the service. That was just freaky. I kind of froze when I was watching that, because I figured that might well be the end of her unless Rock really screwed up. That time when she sent out an order and it was the wrong pasta PLUS the shrimp was undercooked was just a nightmare, poor girl.

[katyseagull]

This is off topic, but does anyone ever watch Dinner: Impossible? That show is stressful! I seriously wonder why anyone would ever want to go into the catering business. It's one massive headache from start to finish. Where is the fun in cooking for so many people?

[katyseagull]

No time to type up a review, but last night's Top Chef was pretty good! What did you guys think? I thought the time frame they had to work with was ridiculous.

What would you plan for your menu if you had your own restaurant? Was there a better way they could have prepared the lamb for a hot summer's evening?

(And why is Howie still around? He messes up a lot if you ask me.)

[Blarg]

The time frame of 30 minutes was very short. The two burgers I most wanted to try were, in order, the winning one made of scallops with the tangerine slice(good idea!) and Howie's, with the truffle butter. (Just as he had suspected, working the butter in would make it nice and moist.) Tre's burger looked like it was probably decent, but there didn't look to be that much surf in his surf and turf; it was more like an odd garnish. Not a stand-out.

Both teams got ripped apart last night. It was kind of cool to see in its own way that even when working together, there were still so many interesting ways to fail.

I'm surprised Howie messed up his risotto, and didn't seem to think either his recipe or his par-cooking it and then overcooking it were bad ideas. As people on the show were saying, you're supposed to cook risotto to order and timing is critical. Howie tried to cheat that process and basically got what was coming to him. When a judge said it was gloppy like macaroni and cheese with rice, that must have -- or should have -- been a wake-up call for Howie. No more treating gourmet food like cafeteria food.

I appreciate that his risotto recipe has worked for him in the past, but he should also keep an open mind about preparing things for the very educated palates of judges and guest judges. If other people want the creaminess to come from properly cooking the rice, adding cream while overcooking the rice is not going to do it.

I'm not sure the judges were entirely fair criticizing how heavy the menu was on Howie's team. It was, after all, up to the team to have their own restaurant conception. Would you go to a Japanese restaurant and complain there were no cream sauces, or ask what's with all the curry when you go to an Indian restaurant? Instead of saying what they themselves wanted, it would have been more fair if they judged what was actually produced. I mean, if you wanted a nice cold cobb salad and got lamb and potatoes, that doesn't mean the lamb and potatoes is bad.

[katyseagull]

What was up with Casey's burger? Did she have anything interesting in it besides ground chuck? [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

I thought CJ's looked really good! I would like to try his burger. Also, did I miss something? Is the next episode going to show the same teams doing a repeat of their restaurant opening?